Tenet Healthcare-owned Framingham Union Hospital in Massachusetts is under investigation, officials confirm

Tenet did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Nurses at Framingham Union Hospital filed an eight-page complaint Sept. 16 alleging cost-cutting efforts such as understaffing and rationing of supplies had avoidable consequences Harm to patients.

Adam Crawford, a nurse at the hospital who said he saw Massachusetts Department of Public Health officials in the building on Monday, said they would investigate such a suspected case Event that took place in January in the cardiovascular unit.

While the state health Officials were at the hospital Monday, Crawford said management maintained the ratio of nurses to patients in the emergency room a good level, of four patients per nurse. In the complaint, the nurses alleged that the hospital was often understaffed and had too many patients to care for.

“There’s this level of ‘We have to follow the rules when they’re in the building,'” he said. “It’s nice to see them being respectful of DPH, and I feel like DPH can really investigate.”

Tenet Healthcare, a publicly traded company, also operates St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, where nurses waged one of the longest nursing strikes in state history. The Dallas-based company also owns Leonard Morse Hospital, which provides mental health treatment in Natick, two imaging centers and an outpatient surgery center, according to its website.

Earlier this month, the nurses’ union held a news conference outside Framingham Union Hospital and said the problems at the state-owned Tenet hospitals were worse than at Steward Healthcare hospitals, which were more heavily publicized. The union quoted the amount of unsafe staffing forms nurses have submitted to the union.

Mary Sue Howlett, the union’s associate director of nursing, told the Globe that union nurses at hospitals owned by Tenet – Framingham Union, Leonard Morse and St. Vincent – have submitted 1,005 forms so far this year Complaints about unsafe staffing, mostly made by nurses at St. Vincent. During the same period, Howlett said, nurses at Steward hospitals in Massachusetts filed 674 unsafe staffing forms at six Steward hospitals: St. Elizabeth’s, Good Samaritan, Holy Family of Methuen, Holy Family of Haverhill, Morton and Carney.

Nurses at Framingham Union Hospital hope health department investigators will investigate additional incidents throughout the hospital and maintain a regular presence there, said David Schildmeier, public communications director for the nurses union. Nurses were informed that they had the right to speak to investigators without management being present, he said.

“We want them to be there regularly because what is happening is by no means safe and appropriate,” Schildmeier said.

Stella Tannenbaum can be reached at [email protected].